|
9/17/2025 1 Comment WITH or Without?This isn’t a story about forgotten gear. It’s about the invisible pressures that creep into our decisions as divers. For years, I’ve been teaching divers how to see the bigger picture. How to be open to these outside pressures and not fall victim. But everyone is subject to them, even the most practiced, even me. If you’ve never trained for this, you are at a major disadvantage. But practice doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a problem, it just gives you a better chance at perceiving the situation before it gets too bad. Understanding the Human Factors pre, during, and post-dive, can help you be in a mental place that turns a dive that just feels “fine” into one that is truly safe. Last weekend, I headed up to the Straits of Mackinac for some wreck diving. The weather could not have been better. It was nothing but blue skies, flat calm water, no wind, and that perfect hint of fall in the air. On the surface, it looked like the ideal day to dive. But behind the scenes, the cracks were showing. Another boat captain blew an engine and our captain helped out by taking his divers out in the morning. We shifted our departure time to accommodate the other group and that made my travel easier. Now, I didn’t have to drive up at midnight after getting out of work late the night before. Although we moved to an afternoon charter, and the timeline should have been easier to deal with… we started later on in the day than previously planned. We forgot some equipment at home and we had to make some last-minute changes. Immediately, while pulling gear out of the vehicles, we realized that we had left a very important oxygen bottle behind that was needed to drive a rebreather. Another teammate realized he’d left his instruments at the hotel and had to drive back to retrieve them. O2 sensors were not reading the way that makes you feel all happy inside, and now we needed to get that changed as well. Meanwhile, the clock was ticking. By the time everything came together, we were rushing to make it on the boat, and daylight was dwindling. None of this was dramatic on its own. We are all very experienced divers, we had back-up equipment we could use, and we’ve solved plenty of problems over the years. But we were also diving on rebreathers, which were still relatively new to some of us. That combination of small problems, time pressure, and new equipment made me pause for a moment and think to myself, “Were we really ready to dive?” That pause is something I remember Gareth Lock talking about in his Human Factors training. He uses the WITH model to explain what was going on. W – Work Environment The environment was working against us before we even got wet. Late departure, rushing to make the boat, and a schedule already shifted for another group. On top of that, once the scramble started, it became harder to slow down. Shit! Where is my O2 bottle? Has anyone seen my gauges??? It was starting to spiral a bit. I – Individual Capabilities Yes, we were all highly experienced divers and some of us instructors. But with rebreathers… I was a newbie, we all were…. We were still building habits and comfort. Experience in one domain doesn’t always transfer smoothly to another, and overconfidence can mask blind spots. Not to mention, I was diving with some past students. Which meant that on top of everything, I had this pressure to be the elder and wiser diver who doesn’t make mistakes. T – Task Demands Diving a rebreather has a lot of moving parts. There is a whole new level of pre-dive checks, system readiness, and making sure nothing gets skipped. Add in some gear changes, some forgotten equipment, and rushing through prep, and suddenly the task demand outpaces the margin for error. H – Human Nature And then there’s the human side. We’d driven all this way, the conditions were perfect, and the wrecks were waiting. Nobody wanted to hold up the group. Peer pressure, even when unspoken, makes it easy to rationalize shortcuts. Human nature pushes us to “make it work.” So deep inside, you just want to say, “shut up and suck it up!” When “Success” Isn’t Success It was great. Two glorious days on the Great Lakes. We pulled it off. And even if things had gotten out of hand, odds are we’d have gotten away with it. The dives would probably have gone fine, and we’d have called that a success. But it wouldn’t have been true success. In reality, it would just be a good outcome from a poor process. And every time that happens, it reinforces the wrong lesson. Eventually, luck runs out. The Value of a Pause What made the difference was simple, we paused. We slowed down, reset, and took the time to ensure we were actually ready before stepping off the boat. I went back to class, I was a beginner again. We pulled out a set of wet notes and read line by line what comes next. That pause gave us space to do things right, not just fast. When we did dive, it wasn’t with rushed uncertainty... it was with confidence. Takeaway The Straits of Mackinac gave us perfect weather this time. But human factors reminded us that perfect conditions don’t erase imperfect preparation. It’s so easy to blow things off and let a major “Fuck Up” sneak its way in. The WITH model Gareth describes (Work Environment, Individual Capabilities, Task Demands, and Human Nature) shows how little pressures can quietly shape big decisions. By pausing to recognize them, we turned what could have been a rushed, risky dive into one we were truly ready for. The next time small problems start piling up, I’ll remember Mackinac. M.A.C.K.I.N.A.C. Maybe I’ll make my own Acronym for it. But more importantly, I’ll remember that readiness is more important than rushing. Want to Learn More? If this resonates, I can’t recommend Gareth Lock’s Human Factors in Diving training enough. You should join me up in Alpena next summer, I’m bringing him back to the USA. His work has changed how I look at every dive. All dives, not just the big, technical ones, but the everyday dives where invisible pressures show up. If you can’t do the full class. At least do yourself a favor and go through the online Human Factors Essentials. It’s worth every penny. I’ve also been weaving these lessons into my Mott Underwater Method. When I work with divers, we don’t just talk about gear and skills… we talk about the human side of diving. We connect with discussions on how to recognize pressures, resist shortcuts, and make better decisions under stress. If you’re curious how that applies to your own diving, reach out. I’m always open to the conversation. OK, It's Your Turn I’d love to hear from you: Have you ever felt pressure to rush a dive when small problems started adding up? How do you personally decide when it’s time to pause or even call it? What habits help you keep your process strong, even under time pressure? Hit Reply and share your thoughts—I read every message.
1 Comment
9/10/2025 0 Comments The Hidden Threat on Every DiveThis last weekend, I was up in Alpena, Michigan, at the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary with my friend Stephanie Gandulla. We had invited Gareth Lock, from the Human Diver, to teach the 2-day Human Factors in Diving course. This was the second time I had him over, and the class was once again, powerful and poignant.
Gareth has brought to the forefront of the diving community many new buzzwords like- Just Culture, Psychological Safety, and Non-Technical Skills, amongst others. But when reviewing the class materials afterwards, I was stuck on another one that really resonated differently for me this time. He calls it Performance Influencing Factors or Error Producing Conditions (EPCs). When divers talk about safety, they usually talk about equipment or procedures. We’re told to “always check your gas,” “never hold your breath,” “always plan your dive and dive your plan.” These are good rules. But if you look closely at most accidents and near-misses in diving, the problem wasn’t the absence of a rule. The problem was that the rule wasn’t followed at the moment when it was most needed. Why does that happen? Well, you guessed it… Error Producing Conditions. The problem with these EPCs, is that they are present on every single dive we make. Error Producing Conditions are the subtle, often invisible factors that increase the likelihood of mistakes. They’re not usually dramatic. They’re ordinary. That’s why they’re so dangerous. You stayed up too late the night before, and now you’re diving fatigued, or you woke up late and rushed out without any breakfast. You’re rushed, hungry, worried you may have forgotten something. Maybe you rented a regulator with a different hose routing than you are used to. You might be diving with a group of more experienced divers, and you don’t want to be the one to call the dive early. Or maybe the water is colder, darker, or murkier than you expected, and your stress level spikes. None of these things automatically cause an accident. But each one chips away at your mental capacity, your attention, your judgment. Stack a few of them together, and suddenly the tiniest mistake can spiral into a cascade of problems. That’s the essence of an Error Producing Condition. They make human error not just possible, but probable. Most dive training focuses on what you should do in an emergency… clear your mask, check your gas, ascend slowly, share air if needed. These are mechanical actions. Gareth calls them, Technical Skills. Not to be confused with, “Technical Diving,” but rather the mechanical work of doing something underwater… and they’re important. But they exist inside a bubble where the diver is always calm, focused, and prepared. And the reality is… reality is not like that. Reality is messy. Divers are human. Humans are emotional, distracted, tired, overconfident, underconfident, stubborn, rushed, or sometimes just unlucky. Ignoring EPCs means ignoring the truth of human performance. And that’s why, when accidents are analyzed, we so often hear the same story, “He was a good diver…” They knew better…” I don’t understand why she did what she did…” The answer isn’t that they didn’t know the rules. The answer is that these little Error Producing Conditions stacked up until the diver’s ability to follow the rules collapsed. Not all EPCs come from inside our own heads. Some of the strongest come from outside of us. They come from the expectations of others. If you’re on a charter boat, the clock is ticking. The captain wants the group in the water on schedule. The dive shop wants happy customers who get their full bottom time. Nobody wants to be the diver who surfaces early and “ruins the dive.” These pressures are subtle, but they are real. They whisper, “just a few more minutes… just a little deeper… don’t be the first one back on the boat.” And just like any teenager who wanted to fit in with the cool kids at school knows, sometimes it’s peer pressure. Maybe you’re the only one in the group who wants to run through a detailed checklist, but everyone else is already zipping up suits and heading for the water. You feel the eyes staring at you. You feel the judgment. You tell yourself, “it’ll be fine… I can skip it… just this once.” But every time you let those pressures override your training, you add an EPC into the system. You’re not just tired or rushed anymore, now you’re tired, rushed, and you are making decisions to please others instead of yourself. The error chain grows stronger. The last few blogs I’ve written were heavily centered on DIR, Doing It Right. It is the cornerstone of the Mott Underwater Method, the mindset I try to build in my divers. Unlike most training systems, we don’t assume perfect conditions or perfect divers. We assume reality. A reality underwater where you’ll be tired sometimes. That you’ll feel pressure and that you’ll make mistakes. This is where Gareth’s Human Factors compliments and enhances the Mott Underwater Method so well. Pre-dive and Post-dive, especially. The goal is not to eliminate EPCs, because you can’t. The goal is to train divers to recognize, manage, and adapt to them. But how, you ask? 1. Recognizing EPCs Early Awareness is the first defense. Most divers don’t even realize when an EPC is present, because they’ve never been taught to look for them. Diver Preparedness and Situational Awareness are two of the founding pillars of DIR diving. This kind of awareness feels small, but it can change everything. Noticing that you’re rushing because the boat is about to leave gives you the opportunity to slow down deliberately. Catching the feeling of overconfidence before the dive starts can allow you to reset yourself and your situation. 2. Training for Stress, Not Just Comfort Most scuba training takes place in calm water, with a watchful instructor nearby, and plenty of time to think. That’s necessary at the beginning. But if training stops there, divers are left vulnerable. In the Mott Underwater Method, skills are repeated under varied and sometimes stressful conditions, we call it Critical Skills Training within the UTD curriculum. It means taking a simple stationary skill and putting it into a real scenario that makes you think. Mask clearing when you’re calm is one thing, but mask clearing when someone turns around in front of you hurriedly and kicks your mask off… well, that’s where resilience is built. This is how you become a confident, thinking diver. By practicing with stress built into the training, divers create muscle memory and mental calmness that hold up even when EPCs are stacked against them. 3. Talking to Yourself (and Your Team) This may sound strange, but it’s one of the most powerful tools I teach: self-talk. When divers are stressed, their thoughts scatter. Their inner voice becomes negative or panicked. By learning to talk deliberately to yourself—“James, Check your gas. James, Breathe slowly. James, Focus and Stay calm.”—you anchor your mind and stop the spiral. Equally important is normalizing communication with your team. Divers in stressful situations often go silent, afraid to look foolish or draw attention. But when constant, clear communication is the norm, small problems are caught early and addressed before they grow. 4. Designing for Consistency The way you set up your gear, the way you plan your dive, the way you move through your pre-dive checks… it’s all important. Your mindset will either create EPCs or reduce them. Diving Is Human EPCs don’t just happen underwater. They happen in life. If you take any Human Factors training from Gareth Lock you will hear him say often that, “we are fallible creatures.” We get tired, we get stressed, we get distracted. Diving doesn’t erase that truth, it amplifies it. Also, if you’re a fan of my podcast, you’ll remember hearing Brando and myself saying over and over again that, “Diving is Life, and Life is Diving.” When you learn to manage EPCs underwater, you also learn to manage them on the surface. You learn awareness, resilience, communication, and consistency in a way that shapes you as a diver and as a human being. That’s the real philosophy behind the Mott Underwater Method. It is why it is rooted in DIR diving and enhanced with Human Factors training with The Human Diver. Diving isn’t just about going deeper or staying longer. It’s about becoming the kind of person who can operate clearly and calmly even when conditions conspire against you. Why now? The diving community is at a crossroads. We’ve spent decades focusing on equipment, procedures, and ACRONYMS. But the accidents keep happening. The near-misses keep piling up. And every year, more divers are surprised by how quickly “just another dive” can turn into something they weren’t prepared for. The solution isn’t another gadget or another specialty card. The solution is learning how to be human underwater. That means understanding EPCs. That means building resilience against them. That means adopting a method that accounts for reality, not just theory. You don’t have to wait until you’ve had a near-miss to start thinking about EPCs. You don’t have to wait until fear teaches you the hard way. The Mott Underwater Method was built for divers who want more than just survival. It was built for divers who want to explore with confidence, who want to expand their limits safely, who want to become calmer, more deliberate, and more capable human beings both underwater and on the surface. You can get started in this method with a regularly scheduled coaching program. We can dive into the water skills and thinking that make the DIR diver with the Essentials classroom from UTD Scuba Diving. Your brain needs training above water as well, and I’m hosting another Human Factors in Diving class with Gareth Lock again next year. Sign up and join us back in Alpena, MI at the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary. Or follow this link and get started right at home with the online Human Factors in Diving Essentials program. Because diving isn’t just about where you go. It’s about who you become in the process. |
James Mott
James has been a PADI instructor since 1998 and was one of the original 10 instructors for UTD Scuba Diving in 2009. Archives
February 2026
Categories |
RSS Feed